Human Resources Administrator

An HR administrator keeps the people-related paperwork and systems of an organisation running: contracts, right-to-work checks, starter and leaver processes, absence records and the HR database. They support the wider HR team and act as a first point of contact for managers and employees asking routine questions about policy, pay dates, holiday or sickness. It's an entry-level operational job that exists in almost every sector, from NHS trusts and councils to law firms, manufacturers, charities and retailers.

Starting salary: £22k–£28k
Live graduate jobs: 1 open now
Main way in: Direct application to an advertised HR administrator or HR…
They usually ask for: A degree in any subject is usually acceptable

Approximate graduate salary

Typically around £22,000–£28,000 to start, though this varies widely. London and large private-sector employers sit at or above the top of that range, while smaller organisations and parts of the public sector outside London sit lower. NHS and local authority roles are usually on published pay bands, so you can check the exact figure before applying.

What you'd actually do

Producing offer letters, employment contracts and change-of-terms letters from templates, and chasing signed copies back
Running new-starter onboarding: collecting right-to-work documents, requesting references, setting up records on the HR system, booking induction sessions and prompting IT and payroll
Updating the HRIS (the HR information system - the database holding employee records) when someone changes role, salary, hours, manager or address, and fixing the errors that creep in
Sending payroll a monthly file of changes - new starters, leavers, overtime, unpaid leave, salary changes - usually to a hard deadline that doesn't move

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Answering the HR inbox and phone: questions about holiday entitlement, sick pay, maternity policy, how to book leave, where to find a policy document
Taking notes in disciplinary, grievance or probation meetings, then typing them up accurately and circulating them
Pulling basic reports - headcount, turnover, absence levels, outstanding probation reviews - for the HR manager or for a board pack
Maintaining personnel files and keeping on top of data protection housekeeping, such as removing records that should no longer be held

How graduates get in

Direct application to an advertised HR administrator or HR assistant vacancy - by far the most common route, and these are frequently advertised as open to graduates of any discipline
Temping through a recruitment agency into an HR admin role, especially in local government, the NHS and universities, where short-term cover often converts into a permanent contract - this is a very common way in and shouldn't be dismissed
An internal move from another administrative or customer-facing job in the same organisation (reception, office admin, service desk) - employers often prefer someone who already knows the business
A formal HR graduate scheme at a large employer - this exists but is relatively unusual and highly competitive, and schemes tend to rotate you through resourcing, reward and business partnering rather than parking you in admin

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A Level 3 HR Support apprenticeship - more often used by school leavers or career changers than graduates, but some graduates take this route to get CIPD study funded
Placement years or summer internships in an HR department during a business or management degree, which often lead to a return offer

What employers ask for

A degree in any subject is usually acceptable; HR, business, management and psychology degrees are looked on favourably but rarely required. Many HR administrator roles do not require a degree at all, so you will be competing with non-graduates who have office experience
Some administrative or office experience - part-time work, a placement year, a student union role or temping all count. This matters more than your degree subject for most employers
Solid Microsoft Office skills, particularly Excel. Expect to be asked about mail merge, sorting and filtering data, and basic formulas, and some employers test this
CIPD qualifications (the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development is the UK professional body for HR): Level 3 Foundation Certificate is often listed as desirable rather than essential at this level, and many employers will fund you to study it once in post. Level 5 is typically the next step up

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A-level and GCSE requirements vary; GCSE English and maths at grade 4/C or above is a common baseline for public sector roles
Public sector employers, particularly the NHS and local authorities, often score applications against published essential and desirable criteria, so applications need to address each point explicitly

Skills that matter

Accuracy with detail under deadline

A wrong start date or salary figure on a payroll file means someone is paid incorrectly, which is stressful for them and time-consuming to unpick.

Discretion and confidentiality

You will routinely see salaries, disciplinary allegations, sickness details and resignations before anyone else in the building knows about them.

Excel and data handling

Most of the reporting and payroll preparation work involves cleaning, cross-checking and summarising lists of employee data rather than using clever analytics.

Working knowledge of basic employment law and policy

You need to know when a question about sick pay or notice periods is something you can answer from the handbook and when it must be escalated to an HR adviser.

Prioritising competing small tasks

A typical day mixes an urgent recruitment deadline, a manager wanting an answer now and a batch of contracts due out, and nobody will sequence them for you.

Calm, neutral communication with upset people

Employees contact HR when something has gone wrong - a pay error, a grievance, a sickness problem - and you are often the first voice they reach.

Putting these on a CV? We counted which skills 12,914 live graduate adverts ask for, and what to do with the answer — part of our application advice.

Where it leads

HR administrator into HR assistant or HR officer, usually once you can handle routine casework and manager queries without supervision - often within a year or two, though it depends entirely on whether a vacancy exists above you
HR adviser, dealing directly with disciplinaries, grievances, absence management and performance issues, typically alongside or after completing CIPD Level 5 (Associate Diploma)
A fork in the road: either HR business partner (working closely with a department's leadership on workforce planning and restructures) or a specialist track in recruitment, reward and benefits, HR systems and data, learning and development, or employee relations
Senior or lead specialist, HR manager, then head of HR or people director in larger organisations - this can take anywhere from several years to well over a decade, and timelines vary enormously by sector and organisation size
Sideways moves are common and worth planning for: HR systems and payroll roles pay well and draw directly on admin experience, and in-house recruitment is a frequent destination for people who enjoy the hiring side

What people get wrong

“HR is a people-facing role about supporting and looking after staff.”

At administrator level it is mostly process, records and systems work. The interesting conversations tend to sit with advisers and business partners; you are the person making sure the contract goes out on time and the database is right.

“HR exists to be on the employee's side.”

HR is employed by and advises the organisation. A large part of the job is making sure the employer follows correct process so it is legally defensible - which often protects employees too, but the duty is to the organisation, not to the individual.

“You need an HR degree or a CIPD qualification before you can get in.”

Most HR administrators start without either. Employers at this level usually want reliable administrative ability and discretion, and will often fund CIPD study once you are in post.

“It's a quiet, low-pressure desk job.”

The work is tied to immovable deadlines - payroll cut-off, statutory notice periods, right-to-work checks before a start date - and in busy periods such as annual pay reviews, mass recruitment or a restructure the volume is heavy.

Where this varies

The job differs a lot by organisation size. In a small company you may be the entire HR function, handling everything from recruitment adverts to payroll to policy questions, with broad experience but nobody to learn from. In a large employer the role is narrower and more specialised - you might sit in a shared services team doing only onboarding, or only HR systems work - with clearer progression and more structured training. Sector matters too: the NHS, local government and universities have formal pay bands, standardised application forms, unionised workforces and heavy process, while a fast-growing private firm may have much less documented process and expect you to build it. Some roles are heavily recruitment-focused (closer to in-house resourcing), others are almost entirely payroll and systems administration - read the advert carefully, because the title covers both.

See all 1 live Human Resources Administrator jobsFrom employers' own careers sites, updated daily Tailor your CV for this roleFree with an account, 3 a month

General guidance about the role across the UK market, not about any specific employer. Entry routes and requirements vary — always check the individual job advert.